The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-29
THE CoNFEDvRATE FLAG.

A Wonderful Scrap Book Unearthed
Some Relics OF the Days of 1851.
Washington Letter to Burlington Free Press
The most curious relic among the ar
chives of the Confederacy is the scrap-book
of designs for the Confederate flag These
designs were sent to the Committee on Flags
when Provisional Congress first met at Mont
goniery, and they came from every State of
the South. Only few of them are pre-
served here, and Col Boteler, who was a
member of the Confederate Flag Commit
tee, tells me that the number of designs re-
ceived ran high into the thousands, and
that they filed box as big as piano top
These were captured at Richmond with the
other Confederate archives, and specimens
of them have been selected and pasted in
this old scrap-book The book was origin
ally a volume of Confederate Treasury
blanks. and you may see the promises to
payn here and there peeping out from under
the many-colored flags which ornament its
leaves. 1t is ragged volume Is inches
long, 12inches wide and as thick, as mans
fist Its paper is faded and its covers are
worn the corners aredog cared. and it bears
the evidences of its twenty five year OF
handling
One hundred and twenty-nine designs for
a Confederate flag are pasted within it, and
these are of all sizes, shapes and colors.
Some are n larger than a visiting card,
Others are the size of this
newspaper and several are of
the full size of the ordinary regimen
tai flag. These last are made of cloth and
the coIoring upon them is of the brightest
paint. The design which ! here give you
with a rattlesnake upon it is as large as the
sheet of baby's crib, and it looks as though
it might have been made of some such ma
terial Its thirteen stripes are of red and
o..1
and crimson crescent moon. This rattle
snake has skin made up of black and vel
low diamonds spots, and there was a motto:
Don't tread on met is certain DEATH
This design was sent to Robert Toombs, aud
IN the letter accompanying it the write
says; lit. -.
States of the South and the red one show
that il they are oppressed they will fight for
blood. The rattlesnake represents the Con-
federacy. If you come near him he Will
sing out with his rattle. II you do not
leave, and dare to tread upon him. it is GER
tain death"
Nearly all of these designs are accom-
panied by letters. Some are addressed to
President jefferson Davis, some to Alexan-
der h. Stephens, some to Robert Toombs and
a great many to William Porcher Miles, who
was the Chairman on the Committee on
Flags. All OF the letters are full of feeling,
and all glow with loyalty to the new gov
eminent. Some are written by ladies, and
DOT few of the designs are furnished by
them. The ladies' letters are the most earn
est and enthuiastic. One Georgia women
says she designed the flag which she sends
herself and that she hopes the Confederacy
will secede peaceable, but whether peace
ably or not, 1t will sece1e.n A South Caro-
lima mother patheticalty says dating her
letter Feb TO- 1851, that shehas given three
dear boys to her country, and hopes the
young republic viii honor the memory of
Washington by dating its organization from
from Feb. % and calling it the Washington
Republic. She writes just as she hears the
news that Mr.. Davis has been elected Presi-
dent, and closes her letter by saying that
the Southern Confederacy has the sympa-
thies of every Southern women, wife,
mother and maid, and that she glories in be-
ing woman of the South
Other letters propose that the new gov
eminent be called Alleghenia, and the great
majority of designs are modelled after the
flag of the Union. There was a very strong
desire among the Southern people to keep
as much as possible of the old flag, and this
desire is seen in most of the letters One letter
which is dated Washington, Feb. 20, 1851,
beseeches the committee by all that is sacred
to stick to the Stars and Stripes. 1t says;
You have fought well under our glorious
banner. Could you fight as well under
another. Never. Alter it, improve it as
you will, but, for heavens sake, keep the
Stars and Stripes"
Another letter begs that the Stars and
Stripes will not be given up to the North,
and after saying that "the songs of the nation
and its flags have prodigious moral in
fiuence," it goes on: keep the stars! Keep
the stripes Keep the azure field and then
add a red cross-the Southern croSs-cut-
ting the stripes at right angles"
This Southern cross is found in many of
the designs and it ranks with the palmetto
tree and the lone star as a prominent figure
Some of the ladies' designs are very curious,
and some are made of different colors Of silk
and satin neatly stitched together and with
little stars sewed upon them. In some cases
the designers had not the paints to work
with, and they have made their
colored paper cut into shapes
and pasted together. Here the red, white
and blue predominates, and the stripes and
stars in nearly every case permit the addi-
lion of new emblems for the new States as
they come in. One Of the ladies' flags is Is
inches long, and it consists of three series of
two stripes of red, white, and red above and
below broad stripe of blue, upon which
are sewed seven white stars. These seven
stars represented the seven States which had
already seeded.
Some of the designs are very grotesque,
and, coming as they do from all classes of
people, it is not strange that in some the
sublime should tramp very closely upon the
heels of the ridiculous. give you design
Al, which was sent to Jefferson Davis from
Cofeeville, Ala, but | cannot paint the
wrath with which the colors seem to swear
ut each other. The design slarge enough to
cover a good-size library table 1t is made
Of heavy drawing paper and is done in
crayon. One part OF the ground is blue and
the other part dirty yellow. On the
broad blue part, which is supposed to be at
tached to the pole, a big black eye is painted
and around this, in the shape of q crescent,
which faces the front of the flag, are seven
white stars. FROM the eye eight white
stripes go outward, running from blue into
the yellow and there losing themselves. The
letter which was sent with this design is well
written. IL is dated Feb. %, 1851. and is
addressed 10 'Gen. Jefferson Davis" The
first paragraph prays for the prosperity of
the Confederacy, and the remainder Of the
letter is taken up with the DESCRIPTION of the
Gag. Ii reads:
"Being a true Southerner, have taken
the liberty 70 sent TO your care miniature
dag, the emblem of which would like 10
see adopted by our Provisional Congress as
tho ensign OF our Government The en-
blesng fs seen ON the flag were taken from